Istria on the Internet - Introduction

"Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and test of our civilization."

Mahatma Gandhi

The land called Istria is a region of Europe that embraces both the largest peninsula and the largest islands in the Adriatic Sea. It lies across the bay from Venice at the head of the Adriatic Sea, tucked between the Gulf of Trieste and Kvarner (Quarnero) Bay.

Istria is an unique and enchanted place that has welcomed visitors and settlers from other parts of the world for as long as we have recorded history. Recent archeological excavations, however, reveal that it is an ancient land with traces of human existence during the Bronze Age and vital signs of animal life going even further back to the age of the dinosaurs.

When did modern civilization begin in this misty and mysterious land nestled at the foothills of the Julian Alps and cradled by the azure waters of the Adriatic Sea? In Šandalja (Sandalia), near Pula (Pola), osteological remains were discovered of a fossil man possibly dating as far back as the 20th century B.C. Some writers claim that Pula, Istria's most ancient city, was founded by the Colchians who were early Georgian tribes that populated the eastern coast of the Black Sea, while other historians, both ancient and modern, more specifically believe that it was founded by Greek colonists who came from Istrus or Istropolis at the southern mouth of the River Ister (now known as the Danube), to confer on this peninsula the name of their native city, Istria. Indeed, on the shores of the Black Sea, not far from the mouth of the Danube and a short distance from the coast of what is now modern Romania, are the remains of a Greek colony or polis (πολις, city) called Histria or Istria (also Istropolis and Istros), which became a Roman town around 30 A.D. An invasion by the Avars and the Slavs in the 7th century A.D. almost entirely destroyed the fortress of that Istria on the Black Sea, and its inhabitants were dispersed to parts unknown - or perhaps to our Istria?

It may be only a coincidence that in our Adriatic Istria there still remain living traces of a people widely referred to as Istro-Romanians (a.k.a. "cici") who once inhabited a large expanse of Istria around and beyond the Ciceria Mountains (now Cicarjia) that were named after them. These people still speak an ancient Italic tongue, albeit much-corrupted by other languages, that remains closely related to Daco-Romanian, the dialect that became the official language of modern Romania and which is one of the closest languages to the Latin that was carried throughout the Roman Empire. In the total absence of written records about their true origins, old and new theories continue being spun around them, as well as myths, open fabrications and unsubstantiated simplifications that are of recent invention.

Istria has always been the spoils of war, with the 20th century alone accounting for five different rulers. What ls known for certain of Istria's early history is that around the 11th century B.C. a colony was founded there by the Histri, an Indo-European people who were kindred to the Veneti and Liburni across the bay. The peninsula of Histria was mentioned for the first time by Hecataeus of Miletus (Ancient Greek: Ἑκαταῖος Μιλήσιος), a Greek historian and geographer of the 6th century B.C., in his Periēgēsis; Travels Round the Earth (Περιήγησις) where he describes the peninsula's inhabitants as "a people in the Ionic Bay" (i.e. the Adriatic). Prior to the Second Punic War in 221 B.C., the conquering Romans labeled them as pirates and reduced them to submission. The Roman consul Claudius Marcellus again diminished their numbers in 183 B.C., and after a two-year seige, the Roman consul Gaius Claudius Pulcher (d. 167 B.C.) finally subjugated the Histri completely in 177 B.C. Around 45 B.C., a Roman colony was then established in the Histri's place that later became part of the Tenth Region of the Roman Empire known as Venetia et Histriæ. With Aquileia as its capital, the pendulum swang back in 455 A.D. when that city, whose roads were second only to Rome's, was sacked and burned by Attila and the Huns during their path of destruction of the Roman Empire.

Down through the ages, the Romans in Istria were followed by a revolving door of rulers. Among them were the Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Avars, Langobards, Slavs, Franks (Charlemagne), Venetians, Genoese, Romanians, Magyars and Austrians. While the barbaric Huns seemed to have only skirted around the Istrian peninsula, the Christian Templars built hospitals and stations within her during the time of the Roman Crusades. Even the French monarchy of Napoleon Bonaparte ruled briefly there and set the stage for the destruction of the Venetian Empire and also the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that followed. Continuing the tradition of ever-turning tides, the 20th century brought a crop of new nations to rule over Istria - Italy, Yugoslavia and, most recently, Croatia and Slovenia.

All who have touched upon Istrian soil have added to the diversity of peoples and heritages that blends into the complex fabric of this uniquely historic and beautiful place. Perhaps it is ironic, as well as symbolic, that a large portion of Istria's actual soil is a rich red clay that evokes the color of the human blood that has soaked into it through the millennia; another is a stark gray-white that is as arid as the ashes of its countless dead; while the balance is allegorically black like the souls of the many plunderers and conquerors who have stripped this land of its most precious resource: its mosaic of people. A land mass takes millions of years to evolve while a cultural heritage requires only centuries. Tragically, either or both can be destroyed in an instant by a flash of lightning, an earthquake, a volcano, epidemics of diseases caused by the smallest of creatures, or by repeated invasions by the singlemost destructive force on this planet Earth, man himself!

Indeed, some people came to Istria to plunder and rule, some to hide or flee from oppressors, while still others, like St. Romoaldo, came to simply enjoy the pastoral settings. In his memoirs, the infamous Venetian adventurer Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (1725-1798) describes the two visits that he made to Istria and his amorous encounter in Vrsar (Orsera). In contrast, philosophers, saints, and hermits have spawned in Istria a sanctuary from the mundane, including a false messiah, even while Roman poets and Renaissance troubadours praised Istria in their verses. One of them, Marcus Valerius Martialis (c. 43-117 B.C.), was a Spaniard who later gained fame as a Roman poet, satirist, and master of the epigram. Better known as Martial (Italian: Marziale), he wrote:

Latin (original):	Uncto Corduba laetior Venafro Histra nec minus absolute testa.
English:	Oh, city of Còrdoba, you who are more fertile than the city of Venafro Famous for its oil, and as perfect as an Istrian amphora.
Italiano:	O città di Cordova, tu che sei più ricca della città di Venefro Famosa per il suo olio, e non sie meno perfetta di un'amfora istriana.
Hrvatski:	Kordobo, koja si plodnija od Vinafre poznatoj po ulju, A nisi ni manje savrsena od istrarske amfore.

The legendary poet and Tuscan political figure, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), had visited Istria and touched upon Pula (Pola), the symbolic capital of Istria, in his guided tour through allegorical Hell in his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy [introduction]. Almost six centuries later, Jules Verne (1828-1905), a popular French author, led his own lyrical hero, Mathias Sandorf, through the caves and subterranean streams of Istria in a more realistic rendition of the underworld even though it is believed that he personally never set foot there. And then came the Istrian-born violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770) who transcribed the famous Devil's Sonata that he had heard in a dream. Perhaps what he actually translated to paper and music was a haunting refrain and melodic echos of the legendary Adriatic winds that vibrate through the unspoiled peaks and valleys of his childhood homeland.

Another two centuries later, James Joyce (1882-1941), a tempestuous Irish writer and later Nobel prize winner, purportedly conceived the turbulent protagonist of his novel Ulysses during his short stay in Pula (Pola) in 1904-5 before transferring to Trieste - the second of the three seaport cities that form the "Istrian triangle" - where he then wrote Finnigans' Wake. Also stationed for years in Trieste, Sir Richard Burton (1821-90), a British adventurer, writer and diplomat, who visited and wrote about Istria. Then who can forget New York City's most famous mayor, Fiorello La Guardia (1882-1947), nicknamed the "little flower", who had multiple personal and professional ties in Istria? His father, Achille La Guardia (1849-1904), famous in his own right, is buried in Trieste. With summer holidays and some of the true final days behind the fictionalized "Sound of Music" escape from the Nazis occurred in Istria, and four members of Georg von Trapp's immediate family are even buried in Pula (Pola).

After being subjugated by five different rulers in the 20th century alone, modern Istria is currently subdivided and its history is continuoulsy being rewritten by its three present rulers: Croatia, Slovenia and Italy. Despite this fragmentation, abundant traces of Istria's past civilizations remain, including the fabric left behind by peoples who lived in Istria for centuries but who were forced to take part in a major exodus from their ancestral home and were scattered all over the world in the 20th century by a series of conflicts and tragic events consequential to two world wars and the final breakup of Yugoslavia. Multi-lingual and multi-cultural, the Istrian people are part of a rich and colorful tapestry that some would tear apart by pulling out and segregating its individual silken threads - that is, reinventing their histories or else analyzing Istrians in two-dimensional and mono-ethnic "scientific" or "clinical" ways that are neither an accurate nor a comprehensive representation of the Istrian people still living in Istria, or even those who were unwittingly dispersed around the world. Our internet domain does not subscribe to the polarization of our Istrian family in such ways and we treat all Istrians as equals irrespective of their professed ethnicity that are founded on nationalist claims, the language(s) they speak, where they live, their socio-economic background, or their spiritual and political philosophies.

To this day, kings, popes, statesmen, scientists, artists, writers, celebrities of the stage, screen, and sports arenas and a cornocopia of other casual visitors from around the world continue flocking to this enigmatic place, along with an ever flowing outflux/influx of immigrants, not to mention an overabundance of political and commercial opportunists. Why have there been so many rulers and high-profile public visitors in Istria? Perhaps it is because Istria is strategically placed at the heart and soul of the civilized world and is sometimes called the "navel of Europe". To those who genuinely love this land, however, the peninsula is shaped more like a heart.

Istria is indeed a heartland and a lifeline set down between the wealthy sophisticated West and the distant disquieting East on the road to the Orient. It lies at the crossroad of the cold northern lands pounded by frigid winds that bear down their winter frost and the southern Mediterranean lands whose intense sun casts a sultry summer shadow. Its rocky coast and placid hills embrace Nature's forces to create unspoiled pine forests, clear waters and sparkling beaches, an abundance of autochthonous animals, exotic native flowers, the magical white truffle and other wild edibles, aromatic herbs, olives and a cornocopia of fruit (figs, plums, peaches, berries, etc.), and to nurture the grape that produce strong wines and even stronger tastes. Likewise, the land and sea have hardened the human hands that have cast the fisherman's woven nets and tilled the peasant's toughened soil. Hand in hand, the people and land of Istria have survived a long history in which many foreign rulers have tried to dominate over them but none has ever fully succeeded.

The term "Istrian" is not just a label for a mystical land and the people living in it at any frozen moment in time. Rather, it embraces both the people who were born and/or live in Istria today and its native inhabitants of many centuries who were forceably dispersed to countries around the world in what is now known as the Istrian Diaspora. The land called Istria has somehow endured all the hardships and remains a steadfast siren, an enchanting echo of ancient Greece that beckons the Istrian people who are living far away to return home, despite the present rulers who would deny them the free and democratic right to do so without penalty or prejudice, or otherwise stripping them of their uniquely Istrian inheritance.

Even casual visitors and seasoned travelers who are harkened to this magical place or who make friends with its peoples become spellbound by Istria's intrinsic beauty - a charming blend of East and West - which has conjoined man to the land and thereby created both an unique physical setting and a colorful tapestry of peoples and cultures. Such a combined and ever-evolving presence is an essence that is mirrored nowhere else in the world!

Our goal in these internet pages is to explore Istria and its people and to celebrate the many colors of the rainbow that blend and continue to radiate on a land that is slowly regaining its mythological and legendary vitality. We do so through the richness of a common heritage that bonds the Istrian people all over the world to one another via a collective memory known as the "homing instinct." More importantly, our aim is to reveal the truths of the past and the realities of the present of our haunting homeland so that we may reconnect the broken links in our family chain and preserve the rich legacy of Istria for the next and later generations to come who are, after all, our great hope for the future!

We do not forget, however, that this internet domain is only a place where we assemble virtually in an echo of love and respect for our elders and ancestors who congregated physically in the old town squares that we so heartily miss today. We meet here only in a spirit of good will and friendship and shall allow no violence or aggression, not even verbal. As such, we invite you into our home and bid you to sit with us in front of our Istrian hearth where we shall not only share with you our gastronomic delights, but also open up our hearts and minds to tell you what we recall of the natural riches and mixed blessings of our multi-ethnic and multi-lingual Istrian heritage.

Marisa Ciceran

Ricordi
by Franco G. Aitala (1932-2005), © 1997

No! Istria is not a virtual space!

Istria is the shriek of the seagull in the sunset,
the whisper of the wind thru the fragrance of the towering pines,

the ironic splashing of the Adriatic on the roughness of the hidden coves.

Istria is the greenish sunlight filtering through the grapevine leaves,

the harsh blow of the nordic bora shaking the batane in the harbour,

the sleepy heaviness of the hot summer afternoon relieved by the coolness of the evening sea breeze.

Istria is the carminion of the red soil bleeding its eternal cry for PEACE.

Istria was my HOME... May those who still live there enjoy her beauty and her intrinsic reality.

No! Istria non è uno spazio virtuale!

Istria è lo strillo del gabbiano nel tramonto,
il sussurro del vento tra la fragranza dei pini torreggianti,

lo sciacquio ironico dell’Adriatico sugli scogli ruvidi delle insenature nascoste.

Istria è la luce verdognola che filtra attraverso le foglie dei vigneti,

la spinta crudele della bora del nord che scompiglia le batane nel porto,

la pesantezza dormigliosa di un bruciante pomeriggio estivo riscossa dalla freschezza della brezza marina di ogni sera.

Istria è il carminio della terra rossigna che sanguina la sua eterna richiesta di PACE.

Istria era la mia CASA... Possano coloro che ancora vivono lì godere la sua bellezza e la sua intrinseca realtà.

Playing: "Canon in D Major" by Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)